CS452 - Real-Time Programming - Winter 2018

Lecture 8a - Initialization of the Kernel

Public Service Annoucements

  1. Due date for kernel 1: 26 January, 2018

Creating a Task

In creating a task you have to do two things

  1. Allocate the resources needed by the task
  2. Make the task look as if it had just entered the kernel

Initializing the task descriptor (TD)

When a task is not executing, either the kernel or another task might be executing its TD holds some of the task's state; the stack holds the rest.

Must also initialize the stack


Initializing the Kernel

Set up the Hardware

RedBoot gives you the processor with

There is a subtlety here. There are actually three ways that you can get into RedBoot and the state of the hardware is slightly different.

Then there are a few things you need to do. While RedBoot gives you the system as described above, there may be things done by a previous student that changed what RedBoot thinks it is giving you.

  1. Initialize busy-wait I/O. You will over-write this state when the tasks that handle interrupt-driven I/O initialize themselves in k4.
  2. Initialize low memory.
  3. Turn off interrupts in the ICU and in the CPSR.
  4. As a debugging aid I sometimes put distinct bit patterns in the registers in order to get some easy information about what is going where.

Prepare the Kernel Data Structures

Where is the kernel's stack pointer, right now? What is on the bottom of the stack?

The kernel data structures. At the very least you need

  1. an array of empty ready queues
  2. a pointer to the TD of the active task
  3. an array of TDs
  4. a free list of pointers to free TDs. This might take the form of bits set in a couple of words.
  5. a structure for keeping the request currently being serviced, including its arguments.

Prepare the Memory to be Used by Tasks

Some of the state of a task on creation is task-independent. You can, if you want to, initialize it in every TD and every block of memory right now.

Create the First User Task

Run with hardware interrupts turned off for now. But hardware interrupts in user tasks are turned on in kernel 3 though they stay off in the kernel.

What you do in creating the First User Task is exactly what you do creating any other task. This task will have simpler code than most other tasks you create, but getting it running correctly may be hard.

Reminder. The place where the kernel starts executing has the global name main, which cannot be re-used.


Other Primitives

These primitives exist mostly so that we, which includes you, can ensure that task creation and scheduling are working when there is not much else implemented.

Tid MyTid( )

Self-explanatory

A question, to which there is a correct answer, or more specifically, a correct (answer, reason) pair.

Tid MyParentTid( )

Self-explanatory

Where is the parent Tid, and how does the kernel find it?

void Pass( )

Doesn't block: task calling Pass( ) makes a state transition from ACTIVE to READY.

Does reschedule.

When is Pass( ) a NOP?

void Exit( )

Calling task is removed from all queues, but its resources are not reclaimed or reused.

That is, the task goes into a zombie state, and will never become active or ready, but continues to own all its resources.


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